Christie's Teacher Tenure Plan Met with Criticism from NJEA, WDEA

The head of the state teachers union Thursday responded to Gov. Chris Christie's education reform proposal, which includes an overhaul of the teacher tenure system.

The state's acting education commissioner unveiled a plan Wednesday afternoon that would revamp tenure for teachers, requiring them to meet a set of performance standards.

In a speech at the Lewis Library at Princeton University, Christopher Cerf called for “demonstrated student learning” to be part of the tenure process, along with yearly evaluations and a plan to strip tenure from teachers who are not meeting requirements.

Under the proposal, teachers rated effective or highly effective for three consecutive years would be granted tenure. Teachers would lose tenure if they failed to meet requirements for two consecutive years.

The New Jersey Education Association responded Thursday morning.

Barbara Keshishian, president of the teachers union, began her statement by agreeing with Christie that New Jersey's children deserve the best teachers.

"But these proposals on tenure, merit pay and tying teacher evaluations to student test scores are problematic," she continued. "In fact, if the governor’s goal is to cultivate anxiety in the heart of every parent and every teacher in New Jersey, he has done that today. He just doesn’t understand teaching, the tenure process or what constitutes a sound evaluation process.

“This proposal is an unproven step in the wrong direction. All reliable research suggests that evaluating teachers primarily on their ability to raise student test scores is bad policy, but that doesn’t deter Gov. Christie."

Tenure is a set of legal protections that kick in when a teacher starts his or her fourth year with a school district.

The proposal is expected to go the state Legislature in March.

“The effectiveness of the teacher in front of the class is the best way to determine how children learn,” Cerf said. “This alone is more important than the class size, or books we choose.”

Step one toward changing the system would be implementing evaluations, which would include yearly updates that are completely based on student learning, including test scores and other measurements.

Progress would be measured primarily on how much growth is seen in learning, regardless of the starting point.

The methodology of effective teaching is something to be awarded. Merely withstanding the test of time, or in New Jersey’s tenured teachers’ cases, three years and one day, shouldn’t necessarily guarantee you lifetime job security, he said.

Cerf said the proposed legislation “does everything in its power to retain those achieving success and get rid of those who aren’t,” and that the proposed legislation is not “trying to bash teachers for our education’s failure.”

Instead, Cerf said that the proposal is very “pro-teacher,” and that excellence in the classroom should be emphasized.

West Deptford Education Association president Denise Verenault noted that there are plenty of myths about tenure, and disagreed with Cerf's assertion that tenure guarantees lifetime job security.

"Tenure isn't about about protecting a bad person," Verenault said. "Tenure is there to protect (teachers union) member rights."

NJEA, too, would disagree with Cerf's "pro-teacher" comment.

Keshishian noted the tenure proposal would put even more emphasis on standardized tests—something educators have bemoaned since the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind legislation went into effect.

“Never mind that teachers already spend too much of their time on test preparation and teaching to the test. ...  Now, fearful of losing their jobs if they don’t raise test scores," she said, "teachers will redouble their test-preparation efforts, and quality instruction will be sacrificed.

The Christie administration's proposal also calls for an end to seniority in layoff decisions. Under current law, districts making staff cuts are required to lay off the most junior educators.

“Our proposal would be to fix this, and these decisions would be made on demonstrated effectiveness,” Cerf said.

Compensation also could be affected, he said, with raises being tied to student learning.

He said re-evaluating how teachers achieve tenure should be a bipartisan issue.

“Are we politically too timid to give our children the best chance in life through an effective public school education?” he asked.

Sean McCullen and Bryan Littel contributed to this report.